NJ Appellate Law Blog – NJ Appellate Lawyer Bruce D. Greenberg blogs about Appeals and Appellate Law Practice

Three Published Appellate Division Decisions

The last several days have seen some interesting published opinions by the Appellate Division. Here are summaries of three of them: Petro v. Platkin, 472 N.J. Super. 536 (App. Div....

The Supreme Court Affirms in the Mack-Cali Jersey City "Residency Exemption" Case

Mack-Cali Realty Corp. v. State of New Jersey, 250 N.J. 550 (2022). As summarized here, the Appellate Division's published opinion, written by Judge Messano, affirmed the Law Division's dismissal of...

The Supreme Court Takes Up Two Unpublished Criminal Decisions

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new cases. Both are criminal appeals, and both come to the Court following unpublished opinions by two-judge Appellate Division...

Supreme Court and Appellate Division Published Decisions This Week

An enjoyable sojourn in Atlantic City for the New Jersey State Bar Association Annual Meeting and Convention delayed this post. I had the privilege of being part of a panel...

Lessons for Police in the Miranda Warnings Context, From Chief Justice Rabner

State v. O.D.A.-C., ___N.J. ___ (2022). Everyone knows, even if only from watching police procedurals on television, about the warnings that Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), requires police...

The Appellate Division in the Second Half of April- A Partial Recap

Until yesterday, when the Supreme Court issued this opinion, the Court did issue any decisions in the time following the last post on this blog on April 13. The Appellate...

Judge Smith Discusses When the Third Circuit Will Certify a Question to a State's Highest Court

United States v. Defreitas, ___ F.4th ___ (3d Cir. 2022). This case came out of the Virgin Islands. Its subject matter was the conviction of defendant, an enforcement officer for...

Statutory Requirement That Parties to a Written Palimony Agreement Get Advice of Counsel is Unconstitutional

Moynihan v. Lynch, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). Plaintiff and defendant had what Justice Albin, in his opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court, called "a long-term ‘marital-style' relationship." Anticipating that they...

Thirteen Years After a Plea Agreement is Too Late to Challenge it on Motion for Post-Conviction Relief

State v. Marolda, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). On August 17, 2006, defendant entered into a plea agreement that resolved two cases against him: a criminal matter in...

Two Accelerated Appeals, and Four More, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in six cases. Three of those involve grants of leave to appeal and three are grants of certification. The Court accelerated...

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An Arbitration Case and a Cannabis Land Use Appeal for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new appeals. One of those is from a published Appellate Division decision, while the other appeal is from an unpublished opinion of a two-judge Appellate Division panel....

Murder Trial Judge Inadequately Addressed Juror Misconduct, Requiring Remand to Determine Whether Jury Was Tainted

State v. Byrd, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Justice Noriega authored the Court's unanimous opinion in this case today. During the murder trial that led to this appeal, allegations of misconduct by a certain juror, No. 8, surfaced. That juror allegedly conducted outside research, discussed the case with third parties, texted one of the defendants, and expressed an intent to find defendants guilty. The trial judge questioned Juror No. 8, but on appeal from defendants' convictions, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court's inquiry "was insufficiently tailored to the allegations against the juror, failed to probe into the heart of the allegations, and was therefore inadequate." The Court remanded the case for further proceedings....

Attorney General's Supersession of the Paterson Police Department Was Not Arbitrary, Capricious, or Unreasonable

Bulur v. Office of the Attorney General, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). In 2023, after a fatal shooting by Paterson police officers, the New Jersey Attorney General announced on March 27, 2023 that his office was superseding (that is, taking over responsibility for) the Paterson Police Department. Lawsuits were filed and transferred to the Appellate Division. In an opinion reported at 480 N.J. Super. 395 (App. Div. 2024), and summarized here, the Appellate Division voided the supersession. Today, the Supreme Court reversed in a unanimous opinion by Justice Patterson....

Sentencing Counsel's Limited Investigation of Defendant's Citizenship Was Not Constitutionally Ineffective in the Circumstances

State v. Hernandez-Peralta, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Justice Wainer Apter's decision today for a 5-2 Supreme Court majority began by phrasing the issue presented. "In this appeal, we consider whether sentencing counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to investigate defendant's citizenship status beyond asking him if he was a United States citizen and receiving an unequivocal ‘yes,' and therefore not advising him that his plea could make him subject to deportation." The majority found, based on the particular facts, that counsel was not constitutionally ineffective, reversing the two lower courts. Justice Noriega, joined by Justice Fasciale, dissented....